Friday, 2 December 2016

ISIS Tells Supporters to Quit Messaging Apps for Fear of US Bombs

ISIS Tells Supporters to Quit Messaging Apps for Fear of US Bombs

ISIS has told its members to stop using internet-based communication
apps like WhatsApp and Telegram on smartphones, suspecting they are
being used by the US-led coalition to track and kill its commanders.
Until
recently, the hardline group used such apps to chat with members and
supporters outside its main areas of control in Syria, Iraq and Libya -
including, say French officials, the assailants who staged attacks
across Paris a year ago, killing at least 130 people.

A US-led
military coalition has been bombing ISIS positions since 2014, when the
group proclaimed a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Twenty commanders of the
group were killed this year, including spokesman Abu Muhammad
Al-Adnani.
"If you get onto the programs like WhatsApp and Telegram
or others from Mosul, and get in touch with a person being tracked, the
crusaders will start thinking about you ... assessing your importance
and identifying the locations of the (ISIS) centres by following you,"
said an article in the group's weekly newspaper, Al-Naba, published
online.

The new instructions came as the group tries to fight off a
US-backed offensive on Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq, by far
the biggest city it controls.
ISIS members already avoid
communicating directly with each other on Twitter, which they used 2-3
years ago to spread their ideology and attract new followers.

The group has used Telegram,
a messaging service, but its account has become a lot less active.
While Telegram offers private messaging, its main use to Islamic
militants has been as a distribution tool to share propaganda with
backers to repost on Twitter for the wider world.

Pro-IS sites on
Telegram frequently remind readers that Telegram is for sharing messages
only among supporters, and "not a media platform for (preaching) to all
Muslims and the West", in other words for recruiting sympathisers to
join their cause.

Dozens
more alternative messaging apps exist, offering various degrees of
anonymity and security, but the phones required to use them are seen as
increasingly risky possessions.
Al-Naba called on the militants to
shut down their mobile phones before entering any of the group's bases
to avoid exposing them to air strikes by the US-led coalition.

"Switch
off your phone after you finish your communication and beware of the
greatest disobedience of all - switching it on when your are in one of
the offices," it said. "As long as it has power, the phone is spying on
you."

In Mosul, ISIS is cracking down on communication with the
outside world to prevent residents from helping the forces advancing on
the city, executing people for using mobile phones. Earlier this year,
it confiscated satellite dishes to prevent people from seeing the
progress made by the Iraqi army.

ISIS has executed 42 people from
local tribes, caught with SIM cards, Iraqi intelligence officers said
last month. This could not be independently confirmed.

WhatsApp bars ISIS supporters for a litany of violations of its terms
of service. But identifying violators in private conversations is
difficult since the Facebook-owned company implemented strict end-to-end encryption earlier this year.

Telegram,
which has a long history of anti-censorship battles with governments
around the world, says its policy is to block terrorist channels open to
the public, and other illegal public content. Private communications
between individuals are not blocked on the service, as these
conversations are also encrypted.

Despite the company's ban, this
week pro-ISIS Telegram channels claimed responsibility for a knife
attack at Ohio State University and detailed ISIS fighters' plans in the
Philippines to expand into southeast Asia.